A warrior who had won a number of banners in battle came to
a small town and challenged the residents of a town.
He was defeated and killed by a resident who then seized all
his banners. This town of banners was called Virudhukkalvetti.

Virudhukkalvetti, later renamed Virudhunagar is a small
town in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It has come
to dominate other small towns in a small radius around it.
It became a marketing and service hub and an
administration centre.

Most things here reel under the weight of time.
The town of banners, remains in small pockets, nestled in
another era. A sort of time machine in parts, where the
immersion is interrupted only by electricity cables

A google image search for Edvard Munchâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Self Portrait with Skeleton Arm
Munch was one the first few artists to use lithography as an artistic medium.
A more lucrative use of the medium was found elsewhere.

Labels were introduced to America under the art of
Lithography. The earliest adopters were orchard
owners.

Lost but not forgotten
While Manohar Bhatia is no more, my eﬀorts to trace
his son Shyam who probably still produces labels have
been futile. I tried to reconfirm if Manohar Bhatia
really was the first and got the reply from Badal
Hasija, a screen printer with over 45 years of
experience. “101 %, he was the first” says Badal and
added “I even remember the first label he made was
for Gabriel shock absorbers and it left me wondering
for days, what Manohar Bhatia had produced”
Harveer Sahni
(http://harveersahni.blogspot.in/2010/08/history-ofindian-label-industry.html)

Johnson & Johnson brought the self adhesive labels to
India. By 1959 Johnson & Johnson had setup a
permacell division to make self adhesive tapes. By 1965
they were manufacturing self adhesive labels in India.
However they sold only converted labels and did not
oﬀer any labelstock to others in the market.
Around the same time, Manohar Das Bhatia, a screen
printer, producing water transfers in his company,
Sharat Industries, did pioneering work and produced
what was the first self adhesive sticker in India. Using a
PVC face stock with pressure sensitive adhesive
supplied by Calico and a Polyethylene sheet as a
release liner they manufactured their stickers.

Ganeshar Mark Cool Drink Shop
A quaint soda shop in Virudhunagar bottles its own
soda. The self adhesive label, of-course, is part of any
bottling eďŹ&#x20AC;ort. One wonders if the town of banners
now manufactures labels.

Artificial Flavours, entered the historical record at the
great exhibition in London. More than 14,000
exhibitors from around the world gathered in the newly
built Crystal Palace.
By the end of the 19th century organic chemistry was
providing tools to the inquisitive to more carefully
control the process of creating artificial flavours.

The striking similarity of the smell of these ethers to
that of fruit had not escaped the observation of
chemistry
August Hofmann
Distinguished chemist at the Royal Society

The Crystal Palace, a cast-iron structure built in London to host the great
exhibition of 1851

Harrison's flavoring extracts, Philadelphia, 1868

The repertoire of artificially flavoured soda at
Ganeshar Mark Cool Drink Shop.
Most popular beverages in Tamilnadu have
their roots in Virudhunagar

Ganeshar Mark Cool Drink Shop was established somewhere around 1940. This was before the selfadhesive label was introduced to India.

In 1940 a local artist hand painted three posters for Ganeshar mark soda. Two of these posters depicted Ganesh and the third
one was of a woman playing tennis but they never used it because it was considered inappropriate.

The town wide web

An Indian village has renamed itself after a popular web commerce website. It is
estimated that the Information technology sector generates direct employment for 2.5
million people in India.

KPM Samy and his brother run the Ganeshar Mark Cool Drink Shop together with some help from their family.
Both their kids are in college studying computer science eyeing a job in an IT company. They are not very keen to
continue the family business.

For now, Ganeshar Mark Cool Drink Shop
remains a popular joint among the locals for
its special masala soda, rose milk, badam milk,
and handmade ice creams.

Virudhunagar is about 50 Kilometres from Madurai. The Ganeshar Mark Soda Shop can be found close to
the centre of the town facing the temple.